My husband and I have lived in Woodinville for the past 35 years. We raised our children here and we are now retired. Our yard is getting too big for us and we have talked about moving to a small house or town home. We have been waiting to find out what development might occur in Woodinville in the next couple of years, hoping that we can stay in Woodinville.

Unfortunately, we now find out that Canterbury Square is going to have 800 to 1000 apartments, some of which are going to be town homes and will be rentals. Then a condominium is going to be built for those who want to buy in Woodinville. How about building affordable town homes for those who want to purchase and stay in Woodinville?Cheryl Conklin

CRIME IN AVONDALE

I live in Brookside Country Club located on Avondale. We have had a few crime-related issues happening the past few weeks. Again.

A few months ago, my fiance returned home late and was sitting in his car in our driveway (keep in mind that the engine was off at this point, and windows are tinted.) Checking news updates on his phone, he didn’t realize that the passenger door was opening and a complete stranger was about to sit down. In shock, it took him a second to snap back to reality. The stranger didn’t even realize that my fiance was in the driver’s seat. The stranger took off running and he heard the “get away” car speed off in the distance. The cops were called but couldn’t do too much.

Fast forward to this week: A few of our neighbors have been returning our mail. OPENED mail. My bills and cards. We are not the only house though. This is happening behind us and across the street. We back up to the trail, and according to our behind neighbors, whoever is doing this is coming from the pipeline trail. The mail is opened, and then stashed behind random bushes, and in driveways. My packages are also vanishing. Last but not least, one of our cars (in our driveway) has been broken into this week. Everything was removed from the glove box, and spread around the car. Tools were also stolen.Kristina Kennedy and the Haldorsen family

SCHOOL START TIMES

Parent Advocates for a Later Start (PALS) was created in response to the very early start times of high schools in the Northshore School District (NSD). NSD currently has the earliest high school bell time of any district in the region. The drop-off time for high school is 7 a.m. and bus pickup times can be as early as 6 a.m. Over the years research has shown that inadequate sleep for teens is associated with lower academic performance and overall deteriorating health, to name a few effects. All over the country school districts are changing their start times and studies have shown the benefits to students are instantaneous. As NSD continues to “raise the standards” for students to graduate, the pressure to succeed is even greater.

All these problems can be mitigated by a later start time for adolescents.

If you are the parent of a Northshore School District high school student, you already know the problems associated with a 7:20 a.m. start time. For parents of junior high and elementary children, this is something that you really need to think about now as change takes time and resources.

Currently, Northshore School District is on the path of restructuring programs, grade reconfiguration and moving boundaries for the building of a new high school, thanks to the approval by the community of the bond and with increased funding of the levies. Therefore, this is the best opportunity the community will ever have to affect a change to start times. If you would like to know more about this issue, Google the national campaign “start school later,” join the PALS local petition on change.org (search for “Northshore school board start high school later,”) and join the conversation on the Facebook page “Parent Advocates for a Later Start (PALS).”Parent Advocates (PALS) Annette Whelan, Karen Van Til, Sheryl Wilkins, Wendy Reynolds